festival

Basant Panchami

The name itself signifies the festival BASANT means SPRING and PANCHAMI means FIFTH i.e. The fifth day of Spring. It Falls on Panchami of the Sukal Paksh ( Waxing moon) in the month of February/March .

Practice : Vasant Panchami heralds the spring season.It is one of the first festivals of the Year and is celebrated all over India. It is hence celebrated with gaiety and festivity to mark the end of the winter.

The festive colour yellow, symbolic of spring, plays an important part of this day.

People wear yellow clothes, offer yellow flowers in worship and put a yellow, turmeric tilak on their forehead. They visit temples and offer prayers to various gods. At home, kesar halva, also yellow in colour, is prepared.

On Vasant Panchami, people also worship Saraswati. In fact, in Bengal the day is more popularly known as Saraswati Puja.

No authentic explanation exists as to why this day has been chosen for Saraswati. Some believed it to be the birthday of Saraswati. Others believe that on this day the goddess came down to earth, along with

Durga to drive away the ignorance that Mahishasura was nurturing within him. In a wider sense though, this is the end of winter, symbolic of darkness and ignorance and the beginning of spring, symbolic of knowledge.

By making Saraswati, the goddess of learning and wisdom, (the consort of Brahma, the creator) the progenitors apparently sought to link creation or origin with learning and knowledge.

Celebrations for Basant Panchami

Though not celebrated on a large scale, decorated tents are erected in public places and the image of the goddess is placed on a raised platform.

A number of devotees congregate in the morning for arati and to offer prayers.

This festival is celebrated with much enthusiasm in educational and cultural institutions and homes. Students place their books before the image of the goddess.

On this day, too, the family priest puts chalk in the hand of the youngest child and guides the child's hand in writing the alphabet: a rite symbolising an initiation into the realm of knowledge.

In fact some parents wait for this auspicious day for their child to begin his education. Many children are made to write their first letter after being blessed by the goddess on this day. It is common to see children in temples sitting on the temple floor, writing their first letter.

The evening witnesses the staging of dramas and programmes of dance and music. As per custom, students abstain from studying on this day. Inkpots and pens are worshipped and not used to write as these objects are venerated.

Musicians specially in south India place their instruments before the goddess's shrine and worship them by offering fruit, coconut, cloth, incense and oil lamps.

This festival is celebrated by all, irrespective of caste. Early the next morning, the image of the goddess is immersed in a river, marking the end of the worship.